This morning I had to sign for a package from Estonia! In it was the long awaited Haapsalu Sall book everyone on the KBTH list has been drooling over. I ordered mine almost exactly 2 weeks ago - so the wait was not as long as I feared. (I ordered it from Hobipunkt.ee - Ms. Helen Idarand was very responsive with answers to email.)
For those of you still waiting for their copy, here are some pictures to tide you over:
Explanation of stitches
My pictures have a blue tint to them, but the book is very elegant looking in beige/off-white tones.Some patterns that caught my eye:
And a few borders:I know what I'll be doing for the next hour(s)!
I just finished both outside borders of the Indiski shawl. Those short rows DO become a bit boring after repeat number x. And I still had to pay attention, because several times I forgot to mark my row and knit pattern rows in the return rows, only to look at the knitted part later and realizing that it didn't look quite right.But it's all good now.
2 outer borders of the Indiski shawl
The inner border should go faster, because there are fewer, but longer rows.I so want this shawl done! My first Orenburg shawl!! WooHoo!!!
Our only a year-and-a-half old washer had been acting up for quite a while, and the weekend before last it decided to quit altogether. The earliest customer "service" appointment is two weeks away ... what to do? What to do? (I hate laundromats!) So I remembered that as part of my Y2K preparations (I know, I know!) I bought a cute little Super Wash Pressure Washing Machine ... see:
This is the deluxe model ... it has a drain pipe!!!
I had used it once after I bought it just to try it out, and remembered that it worked very well. So I dragged it out of its (almost) forgotten storage place in the shed and started washing a few loads. It still works fine! I might just keep it around for really small, quickie washs. It's certainly faster than handwashing, even though you still have to spend quite a bit of time rinsing.
My husband decided to do the more manly thing - he threw a bunch of clothes in the bathtub, jumped in and then hand ... er ... footwashed them.
Btw, one of the features advertised for the little Super Wash is that it is suitable for washing delicates and handknits - has anyone ever washed their handknits in one of these? How did it turn out?
Last Sunday (Jul 12th) we went to Crissy Field, because the animation school my husband attends hosted their annual BBQ there. The day started out like this:
A typical San Francisco summer morning
... but once the cloud cover burned off it became really nice and warm. (That by itself is a miracle for San Francisco.)
The audience was treated to live enactments of the "12 Principles of Animation". Here is one:
"Straight Ahead Action" and "Pose by Pose"
Projects:
Olga's Indiski Shawl: 5 repeats of the second outside border done. I really have to pay attention, because the rows are so short! Sometimes I forget to move my chart marker, sometimes I try to do a pattern row on the return row - luckily I'm a firm believer in lifelines!
Caffe Latte Scarf: It's coming along slowly - it's my morning knit while drinking my coffee, so I only knit a few rows (or none) per day - now about 2 feet long.
Since I just had an itch to finish *something* I did this little dishcloth Friday and Saturday evening:
Last weekend we visited the Filoli House and its gardens. I had never heard of it before - one of my husband's co-workers recommended it. It was built in 1915 for the mine owner Bourn, who also owned the Spring Valley Water Company. Then it was sold to the Roth family (owner of Matson Navigation Company - you've probably seen the big "Matson" shipping containers on the road). In 1975 the house and garden was donated to the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
The place is worth seeing, but a little too dark and dank for my taste. The gardens reminded me more of a plant nursery, rather than a true garden. But it makes for a nice outing.Here are some pictures of the Filoli "back yard":
Rose Garden
One of the roses in bloom - love the color!
Yellow lilies
I believe these are called "Flaming Torch"
A view from the so-called "Wedding area"
Also in the "Wedding area" - almost black pansies (they are a very dark purple)
A bench where you can sit in the herb garden
In the kitchen we saw this object:
Mystery Object
I maintain it's a primitive toaster, my husband says no. Do you know what this is?
When we left the place, there was this halo around the sun. Until now I've only seen halos around the moon, never the sun:
Sun Halo
And lastly, I've made some slow progress on the Indiski Shawl:
Indiski Shawl - 6 repeats of the first outside border done
Because the rows are so short for this border, I really have to force myself to mark each one as done on my chart. So far I had to rip back two times, because I had knitted a row twice. This represents a little more than half of the first outside border.
Oh, and we saw a sneak preview of Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs - I recommend seeing it, it's better than the second one.
Till next time.
14 June 2009
Hello,
I finally had enough of swatching for the Indiski Shawl. Using the 2/28 cashmere, I just couldn't get the pattern to look right - the stitches kept looking sloppy, despite trying out every needle size from 3.0 mm down to 1.5 mm. After a while I realized I need to use a thicker yarn - did a few swatches there, and finally decided on a lovely green light fingering weight alpaca yarn from my stash. This is what it looks like after the 1st outside border repeat, using 2.75 mm needles. I like it.
Indiski Shawl - 1st outside border repeat, 2.75 mm needles
Thanks to the 3-day weekend I was able to finish the Funnelneck sweater. It was a fun project overall, even though I had to re-knit about 3/4 of it, in order to get the sizing right (despite gauge swatches, measuring and re-calculating a few times!).
Here it is:
Funnelneck Sweater - finished!
I DO love the stripes, and the construction, which is done in three parts for the front and back, prevents knitting boredom.
After weaving in all the ends and stashing it away for the next winter, I finally could start on the Indiski Shawl (= Olga's Indiski (= Indian) Shawl in the May/June 2009 issue of Piecework Magazine). I started swatching ... after making mistakes, I finally remembered that for lace knitting distractions (watching TV, cats on lap etc.) are BAD. Since I'm a beginner lace knitter, I still need to pay full attention.
Indiski Shawl - swatch
This swatch shows plain garter stitch sections at bottom - the first one knit with 2.5 mm needles, the second one with 2.75 mm needles. I switched to the larger needles, because my stitch gauge was about 3 to 4 stitches over the recommended gauge. The rest of the sample is also knitted with the larger needles. I do like the smaller needles better, though, even though it would make the shawl smaller - the stitches look neater. I will knit the pattern with the smaller needles, too and then decide.
We watched Terminator Salvation today - I was not too impressed - it's simply an action flick, and worse, it does not even answer the question of how the Terminator was able to travel back in time! For the whole of the movie I was waiting in vain to see "the machines" build a time machine! But Aahnold puts in a brief (computer animated) appearance! In the nude!
Another quarter gone by and semi-good news from my company. No more 25% time (and pay) reduction, but 10% pay reduction across the board! Could be worse … could be worse. Whether this is temporary or permanent we don’t yet know – they will decide quarter-to-quarter. So we’re looking at it as a 15% pay increase compared to last quarter :-)
I haven’t seen the new Star Trek movie yet, but I’m reading the reviews which are mostly positive. One of the more entertaining ones is here: – this review covers an aspect that never occurred to me: Twinks and Bears. After reading it my husband declared that now he can never look at Star Trek the same way again! Ach – and don’t make an extra effort to watch Angels and Demons – it’s pretty mediocre. If I hadn’t read the book, I would have had trouble following the “plot” which has some major holes in it, anyway. The da Vinci Code was much better. But you do get to see some of Rome’s art treasures!
During the last few weeks I ran into Borders and/or Barnes and Noble every few days so I would not miss the next issue of The Knitter – it’s a UK knitting magazine NOT aimed at the beginner, unlike the majority of other knit mags – I love it. Instead of just showing you some glam photos, they actually have photos of details! Unfortunately, you cannot subscribe to it here in the US, the link only gets you to a page where you can sign up to receive updates about the magazine.
A short while ago I received a pattern update for the Rosebud Neckwarmer designed by Grace Mcewen ... you can also find it on Ravelry. Very nice. It now includes charts, which is a huge Plus in my book. I hate reading written row-by-row instructions, because I have to *read* them … a chart, on the other hand … I can just *look* at it and see where I am (or should be). That’s the same reason I like analog clocks better than digital ones – I look at an analog clock and can *see* what time it is … a digital clock I have to first read, then translate what I read to the actual time. Anyway …
My next larger project after the Funnelneck sweater will be from the latest PieceWork magazine (May/June 2009): Olga’s Indiski (Indian) Shawl to Knit by Galina Khmeleva. This shawl was originally designed by the late Olga Fedorova, Galina’s mentor, and expert Orenburg Shawl knitter, and modified a bit by Galina. I’m thinking of knitting the original pattern also shown in the magazine, to fill the large “empty” squares. I had a Russian colleague translate the writing in this picture, but it didn't contain any interesting info.
Regarding the Funnelneck Sweater: I’m working on the bottom band right know, about 2 inches done, which seems sufficient … the pattern calls for 3 inches, but I’ll try it on and see how it looks with 2. So I am finally seeing the light at the end of the knit-reknit tunnel for this sweater.
The feral rooster is gone now. Poor fellow – he was just being a rooster. But the neighbors became more and more annoyed with him, and since he and his girlfriend spent a lot of time in our yard, we had the best opportunity of catching him. There is a slim chance that he might find a new home on a farm somewhere, but it’s not likely. Sigh. It’s too bad that there are not enough no-kill shelters like Best Friends. After a few days of extreme caution towards humans, the chicken is her old self again and happily scratches around in the neighborhood yards – I’m really surprised she is still alive. She’s been around for several years now.
Explanation of stitches
And a few borders: 
I know what I'll be doing for the next hour(s)! 
